Fate: The Second Avenger
by BetaHalo
Summary: 2 years after losing the last of his family, Emiya Shirou must face a danger he had been warned of: The Fifth Holy Grail War. He had pepared himself to stop the War from reaching the innocent people of Fuyuki, however, when summoning his servant, something happens, the one he had been told that would be his partner in the fight is here, but the second one...
1. To die is to be born

**Disclaimer: I don't own any material in this fic besides my own story, plot, or characters**

**( )**

**\ /**

**\/**

…_I am the deepest of shadows_

_Rage is my body, Hatred my soul_

_I am the one who signals the end_

_Always alone, Waiting for someone_

_Ignored by God, Heard by No one_

_Cursed by the world_

_Yet forever caring for it_

_With no life left…_

_I Proclaim to the Universe!_

…

...

_**Fate/Second Avenger**_

To those who want to be heroes, save yourselves first.

XXXXXX

[POV: ?]

The air was too thick

Hot, yet cold

Keeping me alive, yet killing me slowly

What am I doing here?

I have to search for him

I can't remember anything else

But I remember him

I have to save him

Each step I take costs me more and more energy

Everything hurts

From breathing to blinking

Yet something keeps me from falling

I arrived in time to see someone collapse to the earth

It was him

The one I had to protect

I crawled to where he was, face to the sky

His eyes were filled with despair

Staring at nothing, just waiting to join the others who had died here too

The hands of their corpses seemed to reach for him, wanting him to hurry to join them in death

The flames that remained near also seemed to strive for taking away his life

I could not allow it

_Protect him_

That was the only thought that came across my mind

I fell next to where he was, he didn't even notice me

His red hair never moving, because there was nothing to move it

He raised his hand, as if to reach the sky

Not even hoping for someone to save him, throwing away his last hopes

I tried reaching for him, my body no longer being mine; I was in too much pain

Yet somehow, this pain felt familiar

As if it had been there all this time

How was that possible?

I could not reach him, so close yet so far

And it infuriated me

But I could do nothing

And that was reality

Last thing I saw, there was a man hovering above us

He was crying, crying tears of happiness

His eyes were empty of anything else but the joy of having found someone alive in this hell

Hell…

What a familiar and welcoming name

I felt myself being lifted by the man, to somewhere else but this inferno

And the darkness finally came

XXXXXX

I woke up in the middle of a pool of sweat, perfectly staining the bed i was given

The memories were fresh, as if the event had happened yesterday

It had happened a long time ago

so why is my arrival here haunting me now?

XXXXXX

Prologue: _To_____ Die_____ is_____ To_____ be_____ Born__… Complete._

To be Continued


	2. Be(come) an Emiya

**Chapter 1: **_**Become_ An_ Emiya_**_

**[POV: ?]**

The room was white, a sickly white

The doctor had left a while ago; he said that it was a miracle that I recovered at all

But there was a problem, they wouldn't tell me, but I guessed what it was

I had forgotten my life

Well… not that much, only a lot of it

I remembered some stuff, but nothing useful

The only things I had were my charred clothes, the very few memories I could scavenge, a silver and black bracelet that only god know how was put in my left wrist and my name

Kaizen

Something told me that it really wasn't my true name, but it oddly felt right to my tongue

I eyed the bed across from mine

The little boy that was on it hadn't woken up at all

The kid himself wasn't special but for that red hair on him that seemed like grass, and those golden-brown eyes… wait, how did I know that? He hasn't woken up in all the time I have.

Again, those useless and sometimes disturbing memories

I had seen a mysterious man in a trench coat appear sometimes during the periods I was awake, always checking on me or the redhead kid

The man was disheveled, and didn't look at all that trustworthy, but something in his eyes made me curious about him

Absolute loneliness and something else that was lurking underneath it

_The eyes of an assassin_

Those were the words that were whispered in my mind after seeing him the first time, I had been faking being sleeping so I could know about this mysterious (and somewhat creepy) stalker

I had been feeling oddly well, despite the often wails of pain and suffering that were around me, some kids that had been much more unfortunate than us, having lost instead of memories their legs, sigh, voice of any other part of themselves.

The wails felt… ridiculously silent, I mean it as that they were loud in volume, yes, but that part of me that made me feel pity towards anyone's pain hadn't reacted, instead, something inside me was feeling wrong, like liking their screams, like feeding off their pain

The disturbing thing is that hearing those was making me heal faster, as if something inside of me fed off their pain, took it and converted to energy, and put it in my body which turned into a faster healing rate.

The long and deep cuts and burs that were scattered in my body from the fire were now rather thin and non-harming looking, but the ones that took attention to my case were surprised to see that there were other scars on my body, that looked older than the age of it.

I didn't remember my age, but going by the looks I was from eight to nine years old, but again, something in the back of my head complained that I was much, much older that that

The feeling of accelerated healing manifested during the night, I had woken up by that weird sensation of something burning to my bones and flesh, I felt like and iron rod being pushed through them and then set ablaze. The surprising thing is that you could see them and midnight, those digital looking tattoos that glowed in a darker black than the darkness of the night

Because it was its king, the king of the night, the emperor of darkness, the original, the god before the gods, the world before the worlds… _the NightKai_…

[Static]

Gah!. Again, I felt my train of thoughts come to a halt when a strong pain shot itself across my whole body, as if stopping me from remembering anything that might be useful

The only thing I could know for sure about those markings in my body is that they were powerful and _they were all part of me_

The markings reacted to the red-head boy; they gave a feeling that they were searching for _something_ that was hidden in him, _something_ that made those markings jump in anticipation, like a wolf being teased about a delicious and big prey in front of him

I decided I would let these sensations stop for today, tomorrow we have a checkup and I wanted to search for anything that might help me recover my memory

The bracelet in my left wrist sparkled as if acknowledging my decision, but somehow deciding it would be for nothing

XXXXX

"_Are you sure about this?"_

"_As sure as I'll ever be, there is something there, something that keeps calling ******* for help, and you know that this s**** makes me answer like a ***"_

"_But are you sure it's wise? I mean, another ***** **** could prove to be dangerous if they learn about the **** in your ****"_

"_I'll deal with it, look, there is no time, the pleas are not stopping and the pull towards **** **** is getting stronger, it's a matter of time until I'm *****"_

"_Well then, if that how it's going to be, just take care of yourself, ok?"_

"_Sure thing, I have to come back to you, or don't you want me to?"_

_XXXXXX_

I woke up with something in my mind, but it faded away too fast for me to remember anything about it.

I woke up to see something that somehow surprised me

There was the man again, in his worn-looking trench coat talking to a very much woken up red-head boy across my cot

The man was convincing him to go with him 'lucky guy, so early' I thought, thinking of his fortune of having someone already waiting for him.

But there was a phrase that I heard from him that made my mind shift uncomfortably

"_I'm a Magus"_

That phrase made me more alert of the man, making me clench my hands as if grabbing the handle of a gun, but there was nothing there

The man then turned to me, as if knowing I had been hearing about the whole conversation

"What about you? Do you want to come with us?"

I found myself nodding before I realized what I was doing

That day, I became the eldest son of Emiya Kiritsugu

That day, along a redhead, I became Emiya Kaizen

XXXXXX

[A few months after the fire, POV: Kiritsugu]

The former Magus Killer was curious, usually, that would have meant that a graveyard would be receiving a new wave of graves, both of criminals and innocents… well, mostly the latter.

But he now was curious about the children he had rescued and adopted

The redhead, Shirou, was very lively, he really liked to help people, there would be a smile in his face whenever he was at it, the kid was almost like a more stubborn version of himself

But there was the other, Kaizen, which somehow ticked him off

His hair was black with a part in the front gone completely white, his eyes were brown, but Kiritsugu could claim that there was a ring of silver in the outer part of his iris. Were it not for these little details, he could have considered him a male version of his late assistant, Maiya.

"Dad?"

While Shirou was a bit mature for his age, Kaizen was far more mature, almost like he was an adult in a child's body (He didn't know how close yet so far he was)

"Dad…?"

The maturity wasn't the only thing he was a bit wary of, there was the sensation that was familiar, the sensation of being near one of the Servants of the Heaven's Feel, but at the same time, the sense of power he had felt from Gilgamesh, and also the uneasiness he felt from the presence of the corrupted Grail.

"Dad…"

The kid also demonstrated some demeanor similar to those of war-hardened veterans, always looking for things that might become dangers, also , he had a fine knowledge of martial arts that Kiritsugu swore didn't exist 'my body only moves by itself, while I only receive what would come out of the moves' needless to say, he was impressed by the sheer lethality those arts would do in a real human body

"…Dad… -_-"

Also, there were those dreams he was having, those images of monsters that were almost as terrifying as the ORT

"… Dad… Shirou got into a fight again…" now… what?

"Really?"

"No, but that seemed to be the only thing capable of getting you back to the world of living, could you come inside now? Shirou just finished dinner and I feel that the little tiger will be coming to steal some (A lot) of it tonight"

"Sorry, I'll go in a minute"

"Sure dad, just don't stay outside for too long, okay? Your body won't stay for long enough if you keep getting colds for sleeping outside" now, how did he…?

XXXXXX

After the rather chaotic dinner, courtesy of Taiga's otherworldly childish demeanor, Kiritsugu once again went to his personal porch with a cup of tea, once again thinking about everything

Ilya, Iri, the remnants of the war… the curse running in his body…

"Dad?" again, Kaizen has interrupted his thoughts

"What is it, son?"

"Can we talk? It's something important…"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I keep having this weird dream…"

"About the fire?"

"No, not that, these are about something else…"

"Tell me"

"well, in some of those, I see little brother being attacked by a girl who claims to be our little sister, she rides a grey giant with an stone sword…"

"A girl? I can't picture that, Shirou wouldn't dare to fight a girl" but deep inside him, Kiritsugu was seriously thinking, His daughter? Fighting Shirou?

"the girl's name was… Ilya? Something like that, and she said she had been waiting for the moment since you abandoned her…"

"Moment, what moment?" now Kiritsugu was sure, there was something in those dreams, his instinct was literally screaming to drill every owrd his eldest son might say

"I believe she called it… the _Fifth_ Holy Grail War?

All of the training and experience as the Magus Killer obviously wouldn't have prepared him for what he was about to hear

XXXXX

_*Author's notes*_

_Yo everyone, how ya doing?_

_Well, after my well-deserved Holy Week vacations, I am back to the trench_

_I wish to apologize to those who have been waiting for an update on my HS: DxD fic, the case is I have a severe writer's block on that story, and my Muvluv fic isn't faring better_

_I also apologize for the shortness on this chapter, however, I promise that this won't be the standard length, but for now, this will suffice_

_I will try to update again before the end of the week, hope which story will be the one updated_

_I'd like to thank all the support that everyone has been giving to this story, it really amazed me how many views the prologue got in one day_

_Well, for now, I go back to my bunk, to think again how to overcome my writer's block, pray for me (My stories)_

_SO FIGHT IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM! AND SEE YA STARSIDE!_

_BetaHalo Out._


	3. Gears of (False) Fate, Turning

**Disclaimer: it's on the prologue; I won't be posting it again, so suck it up.**

_*author's notes*_

_Hello again everyone, glad to see you like this story of mine._

_I really just wrote this on a whim, pent up frustration, some Iron Maiden and GWAR songs and a couple of coffee cups made me write this chapter like this. be it, this is probably one of my worst chapter ever. i will rewrite it somewhere in the future._

_Now,a lttle tidbit: I really haven't seen Fate/Zero nor finished reading Fate/StayNight; I have been mostly guiding myself trough fics on this site and my on-the-fly reading of the VN, while Fate Zero anime was decent enought to keep me interested up to chapter 15, Stay Night managed to bore me to unconsiusness in the very first 3 chapters. so i decided to read the VnN, but the impression from the badly adaptation of the anime makes me reluctant to continue._

_And I mention this because I might portrait Kiritsugu in a wrong way, I am trying to read Fate/Zero LNs at top speed, but it simply doesn't stay in my mind long enough for me to properly recreate his character._

_But I'll try to do my best, for now, both the Second Avenger and Shirou shall coexist and will try to bent that verse on their reality marble's aria;, man, each time I see any of them I feel tears swell up in my eyes, Second Avenger is by far my saddest character, both his story is actually from an Original Novel I wrote along some friend, but this cannot be said to be a proper crossover, still there will be a while before the action truly begins, and believe me, when blood's gonna spill, it WILL spill like a damn geyser._

_The process of writing his aria for his own Reality Marble left me in tears when I finished it and read it again, but it's appropriate for his experiences, Shirou's own is a poem about his life, isn't it? then I shall leave that front with minimal adjustments, but SA will have a far darker one, the one in the prologue was a version I have now discarded, while some part of it could appear in the story, the new one I have written fit the story far better than that one, and please wait for the name of it, I swear I you will like it._

_And to answer to people's reviews, yes, Second Avenger will become Shirou's servant, but I really plan on surprising you the way the situation will reach that point._

_Okay, enough of my ramblings, hope you enjoy this._

_READ! REVIEW!__ FIGHT IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM, AND SEE YA STARSIDE!_

_BetaHalo, Over and Out_

_*Story Start* _

**Chapter 2: **_**Gears of (False) Fate, Turning**_

Kiritsugu saw death.

Not only death.

But also Rage.

Hatred

Ruin

Fury

Destruction

Corruption

Ruthlessness

Infinite shadows

And a single ray of hope

He already had experienced the curse of Angra Mainyu in the flesh, but this darkness threatened to truly drive insane the already distorted mind of Kiritsugu Emiya.

He was forced to see what he thought were visions at first, but they proved him wrong.

They weren't visions, they were memories.

Memories of what had seemed like a lineage of heroes.

He saw a child, whose desire for freedom was so strong that it materialized into the shape of the ultimate sword for him to wield.

He saw a king, who his people loved very dearly, being betrayed by his own wife, having being stabbed by her, causing the princess to take her father's old blade and fight both for revenge and the desire to protect her home.

He saw a man fighting fearlessly against God himself.

He saw a mere Human standing against the rule of the god, effectively killing every single of them.

He saw a woman defeat tyrants wielding humanity's wish for justice as her only weapon.

He saw a child talking the arms and fight against a race of beings that Kiritsugu could only stare in awe and horror.

He saw the Devil at his knees, begging for mercy at the hands of a human warrior.

He saw a mere kid, having lost himself, choosing the path of shadows in order to remember who he was.

And he saw the ascension of a human, having become a being truly superior to any god.

He saw the contract between two discarded beings, forming the ultimate of shadows

Those people were different, Kiritsugu could see, but they had a link between them. It manifested as a silver halo in the outer part of the iris. The link showed not that they were the same family, but that they were manifestations of the very same person.

God manifested in the Holy Trinity, this 'being' had achieved to manifest in thousands of forms. The kid that once forged a blade with his mere wish for freedom, had become a god killer.

No

He had become a _World Killer._ His mere existence could erase planes of existence easily.

And he had been born from shadows.

A hero born from darkness, huh?

Kiritsugu couldn't help but be admired at the memories of this person. So he saw, the enemies he fought, the trials he faced, and the victories he claimed.

But also the despair the grew on him, the rage that had flourished in his soul, in the end, shadows would still be shadows, and nothing could be done

And his mere existence proved that wrong.

_XXXXXX_

"_Human… does thou know why are thy here?_

A booming voice was heard, the Magus Killer could not discern its owner in the shadows that surrounded him.

"Who are you?!"

"_Thy kind hast knowest me since the beginning of time, Child of Adam"_

Again the voice spoke, Kiritsugu could now feel more of it; it sounded wise and ancient, but a bit of amusement was palpable.

"I do not know your identity, show yourself!"

Kiritsugu's mind was racing, who was this person? Was he a threat?

And so he did, the shadows opened and Kiritsugu could finally see the owner of the voice.

It was a dragon, a huge black-and-golden godforsaken dragon; its size was so big that he could only see its eyes, four sickly yellow slitted eyes that looked at him with some amusement on them.

Again it spoke.

"_Tryest not to compare me with those lowly creatures from your world, Child of Adam; for I am infinite and nothing"_

Did it just…?

"_We are in my realm, a place between matter and soul, outside of time and space, this is where I reside, Child of Adam"_

Was this…?

"_Ah, thou must have misinterpreted the words of mine, these are not the Akashic Records, while it can access them and interfere with my creations, I no longer have the power to do so, Child of Adam"_

Just what is it then…?

"_I am the Original Existence, Precursor and Origin of all sentient species that exist in the past, present and future, thou may knowest myself as the PrimeKaiser, for I Rule as the First and Only Emperor of Life and Existence"_

"_And I have something to entrust you with, Magus Killer"_

Again Kiritsugu must face a divine being without knowing what could happen.

XXXXXX

(A few days later, Emiya Residence) (Kaizen's POV)

After telling dad about my dreams, he told me not to tell anything to my brother. I think I should, it involves Shirou more than anyone in the world, well anyone but those people that appeared with him.

I can't believe Shirou has something as that ability, to almost perfectly recreate any blade he sees, it makes him unique and special in many ways.

And also the target of many envious.

I have recovered what I think are my memories from before the fire, with every dream I have, I can feel myself becoming more and more complete with each night.

But I'll tell about that later, what matters now is something more urgent.

"Shirou! Don't you dare to slack on this! Come on! There's still three more kilometers to get to the house!"

I look at my brother, and see how much he's sweating, he looks like he came out of an onsen (Hot springs, I think).

"*Panting* W-w-why are we doing this again?!" he asked with a raspy voice.

"Because! I finally convinced dad to teach us magecraft!" I answered giving him the universal sing of peace with my right hand.

"WHAAAATTTT!?" there goes his exhaustion. "Are you serious? How did you…?"

"Heeh hen~ not telling! What matter is that we must be in top condition if we want to learn it whole! He said that we must defeat Taiga in a spar first!" ok I lied about the last part, but is necessary for him to have a clear goal.

"!" he makes a wordless war cry that would make the ancient Spartans proud (AN: THIS IS SPARTA!), and begins running with renovated vigor towards the house.

Well… there he goes, what I didn't tell him was that we actually took longer in our morning exercise and we might have to make like eight to ten servings for that crazy girl if she's already in the mansion.

Hope for the best, and I must hurry if want to have breakfast myself, that girl certainly doesn't respect properties even if they are labeled (She stole my snacks last time, and they even were labeled that they were mine!).

XXXXXX

Yes I was right, we barely made it.

Shirou had finished cooking the food and it was my turn to help, while I can cook, I'm nowhere near my little brother's level, I swear the brat has been possessed by a spirit of cooking, at least that, if not a god of cooking.

And the moment we finished setting the table, the tiger arrived demanding its food, I decided to leave Shirou to deal with our self-proclaimed Onee-chan's shenanigans.

I arrived to dad's room when I tripped with something in the floor. It was a familiar-looking cylinder, the tip was conic, and the base was cylindrical, the cone seemed to have been jammed into the base.

My recently-recovered memories jumped at its sight, and I immediately cringed when I recognized it. The same bullet an American M1 Grand fired, the .30-06 Springfield bullet

But again, the 'darkness' inside of me reacted to it, telling me that this bullet would not cause normal wounds, but deliver a damage directly to my soul that if not killing me in the moment, it would cripple me for life, at least.

A type of magic, a _Secret,_ my memories told me.

And something stirred awake from the recesses of my damaged mind, analyzing the object I held in my hand, and telling me how to copy its effects and 'install' them in any weapon I chose.

The information felt foreign, but at the same time, it felt a natural part of me, something that belonged to me and only me.

_Artakha_ was the name of my ability.

I felt the bullet dissolve into nothing, as if it never existed, but I could feel its data in my brain, already archived and ready to being used.

How convenient.

I opened the door and found my dad sleeping in a sitting position, in his hands a notebook with some stuff written on it.

'Dream diary' something whispered in my mind, I reached for the notebook and peeked at what was written on it.

It seemed that dad was also having strange dreams about the same stuff I had, but his dreams/vision seemed to contain greater deal of information than the ones I'd had.

There was a word the picked my interest.

'PrimeKaiser'

The word felt alien to me, but for some reason I was MORE familiar with it than my ability, as if it was my name.

A title, not a name, was it really mine?

Oh, I decided to leave that for later, I had to wake my dad up before we both continued our day without having had eaten anything.

XXXXXX

The meal was delicious as ever, I chose to wash the dishes (had to argue with my brother for that) and left him to clean the table. The sound of the water flowing felt somewhat relaxing.

After that, we got ready for school.

Dad had arranged us to go to some school, I was a year above Shirou, and while he did fairly well in the physical area, his knowledge in other areas was lacking.

Not under my watch.

I had spent all the time I could trying to drill concepts and formulas into his head, sometime he picked them up fairly quick, other times I had to spend at least two or three nights until he got them right.

As result, he had become one of the smartest children in his grade, while I claimed that title in mine.

XXXXXX

We returned home only to find a bad surprise.

Dad was gone.

He only left a note that said he needed to take care of some business; it seemed that his previous contractor had called him.

Fat chance.

Shirou apparently wasn't affected, but if you saw deep into his eyes, a tiny trace of sadness loomed there.

I couldn't bear to see that, as small as it was.

Then an idea hit me, why couldn't I teach him? I remember several thing that could not be possible, if they weren't magic.

I accessed the memories again, and information about magic poured my mind, momentarily making me sick due the great amounts of data flooding in. but they began to organize, I could see that there were so many styles of magic, I could easily count 600 styles, and those weren't even the most prominent.

I began searching again, and inside of those, I found the style that matched the one used to create the barrier that surrounded the house.

Concepts began overtaking priority, setting aside those styles that weren't needed, only two remained.

_Magecraft _and _Secretcraft_

Magecraft used converted prana to transform the world to a certain extent, using predetermined spellcasting and a common system. The more it was used, the more stable it became. It only seeks to reenact previously done 'miracles'. Even the true magic were dwindling and becoming scarce, only three out of five surviving in our days. _K__aleidoscope, Heaven's Feel, Blue. _Those three were about parallel worlds, materialization of the soul and time travel.

Secretcraft was another thing; it completely broke the laws of the world using the full potential of the human brain. While not restricted to humans, we were the most adept to use this style. The results of proper _Secrets_ could give birth to tools of legend, in fact the first mage to use this style managed to create a weapon that cemented its legend among the gods. Every single supernatural being knew to one degree or other the threat of this, effectively converting it into the very first noble phantasm, aside from being the first mystic code ever. Its fundamental was 'to rewrite the world permanently using our own mind; espers seem to be natural users of this style to an extent.

From magecraft came other concepts: _Origin and Elemental Affinity_

Some methods for revealing them were shown to me. So I applied them to myself…

Oh, so these are my Origins?

_Darkness_ for I am nothing

_Creating_ for I make legends from nothing

_Death _for I am the immortal slayer

_Hope_ for I have always and forever been a hero

That kind of threw me off, I was a hero? Immortal?

So many ridiculous things, yet magic existed, so why not?

I searched again on myself and saw my Elemental Alignment.

Oh boy, do I have eight alignments?

Great, this will be useful.

XXXXXX

After some more training in the dojo, Shirou and I went to the shed where my little brother had been practicing his Magecraft.

I had only recently seen him training, and what he was doing, I told him to absolutely not to do it while I wasn't there. The idiot was turning his own spinal cord into a magic circuit.

_Magic Circuits, _a connection to the astral plane, usually found in the soul, they can also manifest physically, thus allowing a human to convert raw Mana into useable energy (Prana) to perform their mysteries (Magecraft).

I performed a check on myself and was amazed at what it showed.

_Fourteen hundred fucking-Thousand _Magic Circuits of EX rank, with an output with so many zeroes that it made me dizzy (343x10^63 units of prana)

Fuck my life; that was incredible

I checked Shirou once; he had 27 magic circuits of low quality due his wrong training.

Which was somehow stupid, because if left alone, and properly trained, they could easily have an output and storage of around 70-80 units of prana.

Time to repair that.

XXXXX

I let my brother take a seat in the faded magic circle that was in the shed, the moment I stepped into it too; it was only him and I in the world.

"Listen, what I'm going to do can hurt" I said to him

"Okay, how much?" he answered, opening his eyes from the meditation he was in

"how much does it hurt when you make your circuit?"

"Eh… Ah…" he obviously didn't expect me to know that little tidbit "Like a hot iron rod in my spine" he said while shuddering a bit.

"Then this will hurt as if I'm inserting liquid gold into your whole body, period." I answered flatly.

"Also… sorry about this" I leaned closer to him.

"What?" I didn't give him any more time to reply, for I was already beginning the treatment

(POV: Shirou)

I couldn't even answer Nii-san before something prevented me from speaking.

For a second I swear I saw Nii-san turn into a Nee-san before something blocked my view.

Nii-san was kissing me.

Not that kind of kiss! It was one that felt rather obliged, not a trace of any feelings laced on it.

And after a moment of surprise, it came.

Pain

Pain everywhere.

Painpainpainpainpainpainpainpainiseverythingpainis mylifepainmakesmepainiseverythingathousanddeathsat housandkillsnotenoughnotenoughnotenoughnotenoughmo redeathneededmoremoremoremoremoremoremoredarknesis meiamdarknessiamdestructioniamdeathiamallhumanity' swishfordeathallhumans'wishtodestroy…

_Torn to shreds, pierced in the heart, burned alive, cut off in half, my throat ripped off, my head crushed, my heart torn out, my lungs burned, my soul torn apart, my own mind killing me._

I felt something awaken inside of me…and also a golden feeling that tried to keep me alive against the onslaught of curses that flooded my being.

And then, the darkness came.


	4. And those eternal bonds

Chapter 3: And those eternal bonds…

(Kaizen's POV)

I was somewhere else, not in our world, but not out of it either.

There was a lonely hill, the sky was an eternal dawn/twilight, around the hill, only desert planes extended as far as one could see. In the sky, rusty cogs laid dormant, waiting for the time they should turn and give power to the possessor of this world.

Yet this was empty, there was nothing but the hill in the earth and the cogs in the sky. Nothing had filled this world… yet.

I felt power surge from my very soul, carefully touching the surroundings, and recording, analyzing and compiling the very essence of this place for me to understand.

Concepts began filling my head, and what this world needed to be filled.

_A Reality Marble_, a vision of the world so alien that creates one on its own, this I could comprehend, but the name of this world astonished me.

_Unlimited Blade Works, _a world where every blade my brother sees is recorded perfectly, its story, abilities, legend, everything becomes possession of my brother's world.

Yet there was only blades without any meaning, things like scissors and kitchen knives were somewhere in this world, yet, their usefulness was lacking; what this needed was _Weapons_, _Swords, Legends…_

_Secrets._

Words of power began appearing in my eyes, I felt the enormous power behind them, words used to call power beyond human, their very essence belonging to the first crafter ever.

I reached for them as they reached for me. They found their way to my mouth before I registered that I had spoken.

[Ability Install]

»Loading… Complete_

»_Eyes of Ethereal Truth… _Execute_

»Quantum Dimensional Pattern… Acquired_

»Quantum Identity Pattern of origin… Recorded_

»_Unl__imited Blade Works… _Analyzed_

»Compatible Concepts… Identified_

»Category: Weapons… Sub-category: Swords_

»Verifying Compatibility… Done_

»_Secrets_ compatible records... Found_

»Commencing copying_

I felt memories of weapons I didn't remember being copied to this world, weapons of all kinda began appearing in the surrounds, thousands of blades, hammers, pole arms, shields… anything that could be understood by this world was being copied into it.

I felt a weird sense of nostalgia coming from some of them, they had belonged to me, all of them, in thousands of lives I didn't remember, yet they had existed, forever waiting for me to call them back to the fight once more.

Yet here I was, giving them a new master, I could somehow feel their sadness, but also their comfort in this world so much like a long lost home for them.

Sword made of materials far from human reach, sword with powers enough to make god tremble, I could feel their eagerness to serve a new master that would definitely treat them well.

Yet I could feel lots of blades that refused to be copied to this world, refusing to serve anyone else, be it due curses, oaths, of simple loyalty, I felt no need to persuade them.

Lots of blades continued to emerge from thin air, embedding themselves to the dry soil of this world, their names made themselves known to me.

Dawn Blade, Wormwood, Slither, Oathborn, Claymourn, Firebrand, Retribution, Kludd, Riptide, Incubus, Thorneblade, Ruin, Unfaithful, Glimmer, Ellorium, Nexus, Kraken…

So many names of blades, they weren't as many as to completely fill this world, but enough to help it not be empty. Ready to be called to fight, the swords seemed happy in some sense.

The hill now looked like the last stand of a major battle, the swords that came from my mind now standing like graves, but standing ready to be drawn. It made me feel proud for some reason.

I climbed to the top of the hill, where again, I felt myself going in automatic, arriving to the top and then, raising my right fist up high, punched the very center of the hill.

I felt the threads of power, those _27 Magic Circuits_ that would sustain this world against reality, and decided to leave this place not without ensuring it would make the finest weapon my brother may have.

Power surged from my hands, burrowing itself in those circuits, flooding them with insane amounts of power that due their misuse they couldn't support, before the energy changed from invading to healing and strengthening, encouraging the recovery of the circuits, it was like a physical therapy in fast forward, the circuits began changing, their quality improving drastically.

And then the power changed again, now those 27 began 'growing', new ones appeared and connected between themselves, the old ones glowing with a golden light instead of that sick-looking green, the new circuits glowed a light blue, before slowly turning to the golden color their predecessors showed. They began forming a now more crammed web of golden threads of magic. Also, including with them a mysterious object I hadn't seen before.

In the end, 2401 new circuits were created; giving a total of 2428 magic circuits to my brother, but it would be up to me to teach him to master them.

Good thing that Shirou was knocked unconscious before I began modifying him. But I decided to leave a last gift to my brother before my time inside his _Reality Marble_ ran out.

I again focused in the circuits, and began my modifications…

[Ability Install]

»Program Search… Complete_

»_Worker of Secrets_… Execute_

»Objective… Q.I.P Ethereal/Physical Links Materialization_

»Q.I.P. to Modify… Located_

»Back up… Created_

»Warning: Constant Restoration of Physical vessel detected… Blocked_

»Q.I.P. Links… Identified_

»Alteration… Start_

The Magic Circuits flared to life, like the sun piercing through the night, I had to close my eyes for a second; the brightness that they gave was simply incredible while the alteration happened, I think my memories went too far to modify them, even if they may help him later.

I could feel them in my mind, and that foreign object that had joined them, its name revealed to me and sent me aback if even so slightly. _Avalon_, the legendary sheath of The Strongest Holy Sword, Excalibur, which was said that would grant its wielder invulnerability form any wounds, also stopping his aging, also its absence was the doom for its previous master.

_King Arthur_.

The name alone sent a new wave of memories to my head, memories of a king with a halo of silver in his eyes, silver hair and a youthful face, while this conflicted with the memories of the sheath, where they showed me images of a blonde _girl_ ruling over Britain, but always hiding that she was a female, fact that would prove to become a thorn in the rear as it caused a chain of events that eventually led to her death. The memories were quickly stored in my mind for me to shift through them later.

But the sheath itself recognized me as if it were the girl in its memories that was present, it reacted to my presence by healing any damage that I might have caused to my brother's body, the healing was so perfect that I could finally see why he hadn't gone sick for all the time I had been with him.

While it would be a good idea to reclaim the sheath, something in my memories wishing to reclaim it, no screw that, they were _screaming_ that I had to reclaim it, but I decided to leave it for my brother to wield it, I simply chose to analyze it and store its data for some situation that may present itself on the future.

The materialization finished, only about 45 circuits materialized by the moment, I made sure that might the situation call for it; they could be all materialized with speed and power. I also altered some of them to be dedicated to the special branch of magic I felt Shirou might be using in the future. But also I let the power write a method for him to hide them all is necessary.

Yes, my temporal connection to his circuits and world made me aware of the spells he would be specializing in the future, while I altered them and made them more compatible with other magic spells that required normal elemental alignments, my brother was doomed to never excel on them. His talent laid somewhere else, and now, it was boosted to the ultimate levels.

I felt my connection to his world fading; I then retreated back to my own body and closed the link.

It was time to let my brother rest, for tomorrow it would be a very long day.

XXXXXX

(The next morning) (Third person POV)

Shirou came awake with the sight of the morning light. While his memories from the previous night were fuzzy, but he had never felt like today, he felt like he could do anything!

The strange emptiness he sometime felt whenever Kiritsugu left for his business trips was gone, the comfort of having his older brother was reassuring, but it somehow was strengthened today.

While his body felt tired, it also felt so incredibly light and warm, his mind felt as sharp as a blade (AN: no pun intended). He also felt a presence that wasn't supposed to be there that morning, but dismissed it for the feeling of strength he was clearly enjoying.

He got outside his room after cleaning it a bit, while he handed the kitchen and the cleaning of the rooms, his older brother always took care of the hallways and the yards. How he managed to do that escaped his mind.

He walked to the kitchen only to be greeted with the scent of a delicious breakfast, he raced to try to catch the one responsible for the transgression of using _his_ kitchen. He reached the corner and turned to see his older brother Kaizen humming while frying something in a pan, several little plates of various dishes of both Japanese and Western origin laid in line, waiting for someone to set them in the table to be consumed.

Shirou could only gape, in all the times Kaizen had ever tried to cook; only horrible abominations had come out as result, one time he gave quite the scare to Shirou when it suddenly grew tentacles and dragged itself outside to who-knows-where, only for it to return at dinnertime and try to kidnap Taiga. Since then, Shirou had banned his older brother from cooking in the kitchen without him present and a broom in hand. But now there he was, cooking like those who had cooked all their lives. It didn't admire Shirou, nor did it astonish him. While he stood frozen in place, his brother had noticed him.

"Ah, Shi-chan, god morning, would you set the table? I'm almost finished with breakfast." His brother said with and oddly cheerful voice, Shirou had always heard him talk with little emotions in the past, so, now this really stunned him. Grabbing a wooden spoon that lay nearby, he pointed at his brother look-alike, waiving the spoon like as if were a sword.

"Who are you? Where's Nii-san?" he said while he narrowed his eyes, there was no way this person was his brother. His cooking was actually smelled good, and looked edible. But this was Kaizen he was talking about, something had to suddenly grow limbs or become a black matter, there was no way his brother could cook.

Shirou didn't see when Kaizen took the spoon off his hand and hit Shirou's head with enough force to make him see stars. Kaizen looked at his younger brother with some concern in his eyes.

"It's me, you idiot, shouldn't you be in bed? Last night was pretty insane. Talking about that, how you doing?" Kaizen's voice sounded serious with a hint of concern and worry. Shirou blinked once, then twice, before his brother's words rang a bell and he recalled last night, and the last thing he remembered was his brother leaning in him, his face changing for a second before his li…

"Don't you dare to talk about what happened last night, understood?" Shirou just stared at Kaizen "I said, Understood?" his said again, but now his voice sounded like that of a drill sergeant about to punish some recruit very badly. Shirou only nodded his head, before Kaizen nodded and resumed talking "you didn't answer my questions"

"I… I feel… really good, like my body had had a rock on top of it all my life and then it was suddenly gone, I feel… _free_" Shirou said, confused at the choice of words he had used, but his brother gave a satisfied expression before turning to the stove, whatever he had been cooking seemed to be ready.

"Good, now, set the table, today is Saturday and the tiger might come for her tribute" Kaizen said while serving another plate of some sort of soup, which gave a pretty appetizing smell. Shirou began setting the table. Already taking the unbreakable set of tableware exclusive for the tiger, he set it in the place she usually took for herself, the servings in those plates were almost thrice as big as the ones on their own plates, but it actually never mattered, the siblings always kept a secret stash of dehydrated food set hidden somewhere in the counters.

And so they sat, after saying a quick "Itadakimasu" they dug in, before the roar announced that announced that a certain tiger had joined them for that morning breakfast.

XXXXXX

The Emiya brothers walked to the shopping district, while it looked like family simply going shopping; it was more of secret training for the youngest (Shopping for supplies and training a bit of magecraft, two birds in one stone).

True to his word, Kaizen had taught to Shirou the theory behind _Structural Analysis_ spell during the morning, while it would look useless to any other magi, for them, it was essential, being very basic, it would become the base for more complicated spells of their own style.

Kaizen would find a random object somewhere in the streets, and would ask Shirou to analyze it, and ask about certain properties of the object, while shaky at first, Shirou had begun to get a better grasp of the spell, and whenever his brother would ask him to analyze a bladed object, Shirou found that he could grasp its structure and a bit of its history, some were blurry, but it began getting clearer and clearer.

"Shirou, you see that?" Kaizen asked him, Shirou turned to see what his next target would be, it was a little pocket knife, the blade was small, but it was a blade anyway. Shirou found again the ease in which he could comprehend that object, compared to the others his brother had pointed him to that hadn't been blades.

Shirou told his brother some of the knife's details, but only when his brother asked did he notice that he knew a bit about the knife's owner. Some details were a bit disturbing, but not on the level of the time Shirou analyzed a trash bin for mistake.

He would never be able to see used tissues the same way for a while. Just who the heck wants to have a wank thinking about his own mother?

For once, he was glad they didn't have one, because the horrible nightmares it would make him have.

The brothers spent various hours until lunch, where Kaizen dragged Shirou to a family restaurant, the sight of two children with the same golden-brown eyes wearing opposite clothing to the other (Kaizen using a light blue t-shirt and black pants and Shirou a black t-shirt and clear blue pants)

They ordered some fast food, much to Kaizen's delight and Shirou's dismay, while waiting, Kaizen telepathically told Shirou more about their father's style of magic, when Shirou couldn't comprehend, Kaizen would always find an example for almost any kind of theory behind magecraft.

After finishing their lunch (In Shirou's words: Aberrations), Kaizen dragged Shirou to a Mall, the place was full of people due the weekend, but while most of people just window-shopped, Kaizen took his brother to a certain store, more specifically, an electronics store.

The Emiyas entered the place, while mobile phones (AN: cell phones for American natives) had become popular, there was also the newest versions that included thousands of other things. There were also those thing called laptops and other stuff like game consoles and many others.

Kaizen produced a bank card from somewhere, and bought a pair of mobile phones for him and his brother, some credit for them; also he bought a high end laptop, a little tablet pc and at last some external batteries for all the stuff, the laptop also received a pair of long-life batteries.

After that, they went to a sports store, they bought half a dozen bokkens (wooden swords), some protection gear and other stuff. They visited a clothing store and bought several outfits that leaned more in functionality, but still had some style. How Kaizen was able to pay all the stuff was beyond Shirou.

And after that, they went back the house; Kaizen had asked the store people to deliver their stuff to the Household, Meanwhile, the brothers went to the shed for Kaizen to explain Shirou the theory behind _reinforcement_ magic. While it was complicated for Shirou to know just how much od pour into the stuff he reinforced by the time the stuff they bought (about 21:00) Shirou had managed to successfully reinforce a piece of iron, even if only for about 15 seconds.

The brothers decided to call it a day, then went to prepare dinner, Shirou racing to the kitchen almost immediately, Kaizen this time only set the table, as the oddball known as Fujimura Taiga once more arrived to demand 'Shirou's proof of love' (AKA: his food).

For the next week, the brothers would train harshly, running about 2 laps around Fuyuki, some studying sessions after school, both of mundane school subject and magic theory, then they would spar for some hours in the house's dojo, each time, Kaizen would beat him rather quickly, before Shirou learned try to anticipate Kaizen's attacks, which proved itself to be more difficult than he thought, Kaizen's style was so different from the kendo he had seen Taiga practice, his brother would always begin in a stance that invited the opponent to attack first, which proved to be fatal as it let Kaizen control the flow of the spar; then for last, they would spend some time in the shed, which was now dubbed as Shirou's workshop, Kaizen had told him that every magus had one, as for him, that shed counted as one. Kaizen would try to copy the bounded field around the house to put a smaller one in the shed for protection.

The last thing was to fully unleash the power of their magic circuits at least every two or three days, Kaizen told him it was for them to familiarize with them, also to keep them strong and healthy, as if they were part of their bodies and not their souls only.

Sometimes they would practice materializing them physically, while painful at first, by the end of that month, Kaizen could materialize about 1% of his blood-red-colored magic circuits, while Shirou managed to materialize about 400 of his golden-white own by the same time.

Then they moved to practice _Projection_ magic, while Shirou began to discover and actively use his own _Tracing_ magic. Their duels changed as they now used their projected bokkens to test them and exercise a bit.

By the end of the year (they began practicing in mid-September) Kiritsugu returned, while he made a face at first at seeing both his sons practicing magecraft, he was somewhat impressed of how much they managed to do on their own.

Kaizen then discovered what was left of their father's Magic Crest, having recorded it in his mind, Kaizen managed to find a way to accurately recreate two set of the very same crest that lay now ruined in their father's back. He would tell them later, not trusting that his father would like the idea of those crest copies that cost him his childhood.

After some weeks of training, now with the advice of Kiritsugu, they would take their physical training to the next level, to the point where their school's track club would pursue them restlessly, but the brothers would always outrun them for a large distance.

Using their weekends, Shirou would access the memories that Kaizen implanted on him, he could manage to recreate them successfully, albeit a bit degraded, but overall, the copy was good enough for them to not to notice the differences unless using _structural analysis_.

The power and skill they carried helped Shirou a lot to improve his already (by normal people) insane swordsmanship, while the knowledge they carried also helped him comprehend the magic theories. They managed to find _Alteration_ magic shortly after that.

The pair would also find archery, while Shirou was a prodigy on that area, Kaizen was by no means left behind; the Archery club would always stay silent while the pair would fire their arrows at really quick rate. They would be known as the 'machine gun arrow pair' by the rest of elementary school, their reputation granted them the horror of the scouting by the same clubs during Middle school.

But just before middle school, something happened, something that would seal their destiny as contestants for the right of wishing anything they wanted.

A certain purple-haired teen had been rescued.

XXXXXX

_Author's notes_

_Yeah, kind of short chapter. Hey, don't talk, RL's been quite hard._

_The reception of this story is incredible, I mean, yesterday, it hit the 4000 hits! More than twice my first story! thank you!_

_Ok. Enough. I formally request for someone to become my beta, while it ain't hard to write my own stories, there are time where my head won't work the right way and the story is the one that would suffer, just look at the previous chapter._

_To tell you, Kaizen Emiya will probably become overpowered soon, and will drag Shirou along the way, this time, while not an a full magus, Shirou will manage to rock his own way._

_Next time, I'll introduce Sakura and that brother of hers, expect some badassery teaching Shinji some respect._

_So READ! REVIEW! FIGHT IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM! AND SEE YA STARSIDE!_

_BetaHalo, Over and Out._


End file.
